Oscar Nominations (2007)

Last year, I made some Oscar Award predictions after the nominations were released.

Well, the 2007 nominations have now been released so here is my fearless forecast of who should win and who will win. (I am suppressing italics and bold on the typesetting below because I am lazy.)


Best leading actor: Well, I haven't seen any of the films, so I have no opinion as to who should win. I will arbitrarily say that Will Smith (Pursuit of Happyness) will win.

Best supporting actor: Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) should win, at least among the nominees. Of course, why the Hell was Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) not nominated? Arkin will win.

Best leading actress: Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada) should win. (She was fantastic.) Penelope Cruz (Volver) will win.

Best supporting actress: Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) could and should win.

Best animated feature: Well, I would vote for A Scanner Darkly if it were one of the choices. Of the choices, Cars will and should win. I wonder, however, why only three films were nominated. Flushed Away and Ice Age II should have been nominated. There were plenty of good options and no need to restrict to three choices (especially when it wasn't even the best three).

Best art direction: Pan's Labyrinth should and will win. (By the way, Pan's Labyrinth has gotten a lot of nominations for a foreign film, and they are well deserved! It didn't get as many as did Life is Beautiful -- which I really ought to see -- and Crouching Tiger, but it has done extremely well here.)

Best cinematography: Pan's Labyrinth should and will win. (The cinematography and art direction for this film were both exceptional.)

Best costume design: Well, Curse of the Golden Flower got nominated for this, so that's a clear winner. There's just no way any other 2006 film should have any chance of getting this Oscar. Nevertheless, I predict that Marie Antoinette will win.

Best directing: I didn't see any of these films, so I'll arbitraraily predict that United 93 will win because I think that films about 9-11 will get extra credit because of their subject matter. (I could write a whole diatribe about how that's a bunch of tripe, but I nevertheless think that this will happen.)

Best documentary feature: I didn't see any of these either, but An Inconvenient Truth is going win in a landslide. Hey, if Al Gore can't win the Presidency, he might as well win the Oscar. But then again, the Oscars could imitate the presidential elections and Jesus Camp might win because of Republican finagling.

Best documentary short: Like I have any fucking clue about this one... I didn't see any of these films, so I'm going to pull something out of my ass and predict that The Blood of Yingzhou District will win simply because it has 'blood' in the title.

Best film editing: I didn't see any of these films, but United 93 will win because it's about 9-11. Not to be cynical or anything...

Best foreign language film: This is a no brainer. Pan's Labyrinth will win, and Pan's Labyrinth should win. It's not close. I am surprised that Volver wasn't nominated, as it received a lot of hype.

Best make-up: Pan's Labyrinth will and should win. (Here, I noticed the seemingly strange nomination of Click. I didn't see the film, so maybe there's a good reason for this, but it seems weird on the surface.)

Best musical score: The only film I saw among the nominees is Pan's Labyrinth, but it's score didn't strike me as memorable. So I have no idea what film should win. I'll predict arbitrarily that Babel will win.

Best music (song): Well, the only thing I saw here was Cars. Three of the nominees are from Dreamgirls and the last is from An Inconvenient Truth (that's kind of weird). I'm going to predict that "Our Town" from Cars will win just because Randy Newman is awesome.

Best picture: Well, I wouldn't rank any of the listed films among my best films for 2006. I already discussed that extensively in one of my 2006 wrap-up blog entries. I only saw one of the nominated films, Little Miss Sunshine, and that's the one that I think will win.

Best short film (animated): Well, I'm not sure which one will win. I'll say Lifted based on the pedigree of the people who produced it. I don't believe I saw any of these, so I can't say what should win---but my warm and fuzzy feelings go with No Time For Nuts simply because it stars Scratch from Ice Age. My preciousssssssssss....

Best short film (live action): I didn't see any of these. I'm going to say arbitrarily that West Bank Story will win because it's name amuses me.

Best sound editing: The only one of these I saw was Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest. I'll say that Letters from Iwo Jima will win, but I am just pulling this out of my ass.

Best sound mixing: I didn't see any of these either, but I'm going to go with Dreamgirls as the one I think will be victorious.

Best visual effects: I only saw Pirates II among these films. The other two are Poseiden and Superman Returns. I'll predict that Pirates II will win.

Best writing (adapted screenplay): My WTF award goes to the nomination of Borat in this category. Look, there are categories in which one could nominate that film (even though I didn't like it). In my opinion, this one simply isn't it. My prediction is that Notes on a Scandal will win this one.

Best writing (original screenplay): Now, here's something interesting. Pan's Labyrinth got nominated even though it's a foreign film. I find this extremely interesting. I think that Little Miss Sunshine will win, but I'm going to go with Pan's Labyrinth as the one that should win just because I liked that film so much. But, if there were any justice at all in the world, Snakes on a Plane would have received an Oscar nomination in this category.


One more thing: Will somebody please explain to me how Prairie Home Companion didn't get a single nomination? (at least among the categories listed on the web page I found ... maybe it got one in a trivial category?)